THE MISSION
The CO2M (Carbon Dioxide Monitoring) mission is one of the six High Priority Candidate Missions for Earth monitoring, following up on the Sentinel satellites. This mission is part of the Copernicus program, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with EUMETSAT and ECMWF.
The primary objective of the CO2M mission is to measure the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) released into the atmosphere specifically through human activities. This mission aims to provide accurate and timely data to help monitor and verify anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, supporting efforts to mitigate climate change.
The CO2M satellites will carry three instruments:
Combined CO2 and NO2 Imaging Spectrometer
The combined CO2 and NO2 Imaging Spectrometer (CO2I/NO2I) will measure carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in the atmosphere. It has a spatial resolution of 4 km.
Multi-Angle Polarimeter (MAP)
Multi-Angle Polarimeter (MAP): This instrument will measure the polarization of light reflected by the Earth's atmosphere. This information will be used to retrieve aerosol properties, which are important for correcting CO2 measurements.
Cloud Imager (CLIM)
Cloud Imager (CLIM): This instrument will provide high-resolution images of clouds. This information will be used to mask out clouds from CO2 retrievals.
Three CO2M satellites have been commissioned by ESA.
